Cuomo again blasts Trump on family separation

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York will provide services for immigrant children placed into foster care after being separated from their families on the southern border, and again raged against President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration.

Cuomo, a Democrat running for a third term, said during a press conference at his Manhattan office on Monday that the state’s Office of Children and Family Services as well as the Department of Health would provide the children with “whatever they need — legal services, educational services, counseling, mental health [services],” when they are placed in private foster care or with distant relatives.

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The governor has estimated that there are as many as 700 children in New York who were separated from their parents after they crossed illegally into the United States and were jailed. Cuomo said the state would also help reunify the children with their families.

On Monday, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters he had stopped referring people for prosecution, to fulfill Trump’s executive order forbidding family separation.

Cuomo continued to blast the president's policy, as he has since for several days.

“It’s a question of values, a question of decency,” the governor said. “If any other country did this, we would be the first to condemn it. We would be sending airplanes full of protesters saying, how dare you do this — rip a baby from the arms of [a] mother.”

Cuomo added: “This is either an historic example of gross incompetence of government or it is a political tactic that would make Machiavelli blush.”